vol. v, 100, 102]. He was a personal friend of Dana's [Britton,
_Memoirs_, 89], became with Lane an active Free State man and
later was appointed on Lane's staff [_Daily Conservative_,
January 24, 31, 1862]. He served as correspondent of the _Daily
Conservative_ at the time when that newspaper was most guilty of
incendiarism.]

[Footnote 316: James A. Phillips to Judson, June 28, 1862, _Official
Records_, vol. xiii, 456.]

place it anxiously awaited the return of Lieutenant-colonel Ratliff,
who had been despatched to Neosho in response to an urgency call from
General E.B. Brown in charge of the Southwestern Division of the
District of Missouri.[317]

The Confederates were still in the vicinity, promiscuously wandering
about, perhaps; but, none the less, determined to check, if possible,
the Federal further progress; for they knew that only by holding the
territorial vantage, which they had secured through gross Federal
negligence months before, could they hope to maintain intact the
Indian alliance with the Southern States. Stand Watie's home farm was
in the neighborhood of Weer's camp and Stand Watie himself was even
then scouting in the Spavinaw hills.[318]

In the latter part of May, under directions from General
Beauregard[319] but apparently without the avowed knowledge of the
Confederate War Department and certainly without its official[320]
sanction, Thomas C.

[Footnote 317: Weer to Moonlight, June 23, 1862, _Official
Records_, vol. xiii, 445, and same to same, July 2, 1862,
Ibid., 459-461.]

[Footnote 318: Anderson, _Life of General Stand Watie_, 18.]

[Footnote 319: _Official Records_, vol. xiii, 28.]

[Footnote 320: The emphasis should be upon the word, _official_,
since the government must assuredly have acquiesced in Hindman's
appointment. Hindman declared that the Secretary of War, in
communicating on the subject to the House of Representatives, "ignored
facts which had been officially communicated to him," in order to
convey the impression that Hindman had undertaken to fill the post
of commander in the Trans-Mississippi Department without rightful
authority [Hindman to Holmes, February 8, 1863, Ibid., vol.
xxii, part 2, p. 785]. The following telegram shows that President
Davis had been apprised of Hindman's selection, and of its tentative
character.

BALDWIN, June 5, 1862.

(Received 6th.)

THE PRESIDENT:

Do not send any one just now to command the Trans-Mississippi
District. It will